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Thread: Time to swallow the anchor.

  1. #1
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    Default Time to swallow the anchor.

    In May 1946 I signed on the "Orari" belonging to the N.Z. Shipping Co.. She was a happy ship and I stayed on her for just over a year. We would carry a general cargo outward to Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney, then hop over to N.Z. and load frozen meat at various ports to take back to U.K. On our first trip we came back home via Cape Horn with a deck cargo of about 30 stud sheep that we took to Buenos Aires. l remember it as being bitterly cold and rough going round the Horn (on my 21st birthday,) and the owner of the sheep (who sailed with us,) had his work cut out to keep them alive. However, he landed them all at B.A, and made a small fortune when they were sold.
    By the time 1947 arrived I’d had just about enough of the sea. It was alright while the war was on. There was a purpose then in what I was doing, but peacetime seafaring was a different matter. I wanted something better but good jobs weren’t all that plentiful. The war had been over for two years and the returning servicemen had all got back into civvy employment. I eventually got a job at the Dunlop tyre factory in Liverpool, but it was a dirty job, not very well paid, and about a ninety minute journey each way from my home. Being inside a gloomy factory, swabbing tyre casings with liquid carbon black was just too much after the open air sea life.
    I stuck it for a few weeks before quitting, but there was little prospect of getting anything better and I eventually gave in and went down to the shipping pool to try for another ship.
    They didn't really want to know me. The rules had changed and now seamen were expected to sign long term two year contracts with the shipping companies if they wanted a job. I went freelancing round the docks and eventually got a job on the 'Empire Deben,’ which was an ex troopship now converted back to the passenger trade. We sailed from Newport in late Oct. 1947 and went through Suez to Bombay with fare paying passengers, (a first for me). For the return to U.K. we embarked a shipload of Anglo-Indian ladies, mostly wives and daughters of the British Raj who were departing India after it had won its independence. I felt sorry for them. They were going to get such a shock, leaving India, where they had lived in comparative luxury with lots of servant helpers, for the grey skies of England and the local fish and chip shops!
    We paid off in Southampton in June 1948 and I then got a job as a saloon steward on the 'Alca', which was a small cruise ship belonging to Yeoman's Shipping Co. We did a three week cruise to Funchal in the Madeira Islands. The passengers were mostly old dowagers or otherwise unattached females, on holiday and rampant to find any unattached male passenger or ships officer to solace them. It was unbelievable how brazen they were. It was like living in a Parisian bordello, and did nothing to improve my opinion of the upper classes! Some of the regular hands on the ship had a money making scheme that involved buying caseloads of small nails in the U.K. and selling them in Funchal. These nails were in very short supply there, and were used in boxing up the tomatoes we brought back as cargo.
    About a week into the cruise, the Captain ordered a search of the crew quarters. The officers seized every box of nails they could find, and dumped them overboard. I’m not sure what the reason was, or even if they had the right to do what they did, but it caused a lot of discontent among the crew.
    After that, I did one quick trip as a cabin steward on the 'Empire Bure', taking emigrants to South America, and then signed on the 'Durango', an intermediate cargo ship belonging to the Royal Mail Shipping Co. I did one trip on the 'Durango', then signed on her sister ship, the 'Drina', for one trip.
    Both voyages were to S. America, calling at Rio, Santos, Montevideo, etc.
    I'll never forget sailing into Rio, one early morning, just after sun up on a beautiful still day. A flat calm sea, and Sugar Loaf Mountain, just behind the golden sands of Copacabana Beach as we went gliding past, and then the ship turning into Rio harbour, with the giant statue of Christ, arms outstretched, standing on top of a mountain behind the town. It was the most perfect landfall I've ever experienced. It’s a pity that going ashore in Rio didn't elicit the same magic. It was a dump!
    My last ship was the Accra, an Elder Dempster boat trading to the west coast of Africa. It was a particularly hot and humid trip and I recall that every time I passed the pig and whistle I'd stop for a quick pint to replace the moisture lost due to the sweat pouring out of me. I had to sign a chit for each drink, and the total was deducted from my signing off pay. What was left was barely enough for the fare home!
    The foregoing accounts may give the impression that life at sea was one long, romantic holiday. It wasn't. It was hard work, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, indifferent pay and poor living conditions. Entertainment was what you made yourself, and in the off work hours I was usually bored out of my skull. It’s no wonder that seamen get such a bad name for their hell raising when they get ashore.
    I was one of the lucky ones in that I came through the war without anything drastic happening to me. I don't ever regret going to sea. It taught me a lot and I would probably never have become a Kiwi had I not first come here as a seaman and fallen in love with the lifestyle.
    I've lived here now for 68 years so I don't get referred to as a bloody pom any more!

    Alca.jpg Alca Durango.jpg Durango Accra .jpg Accra.
    Last edited by Doc Vernon; 24th March 2021 at 07:23 PM.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Time to swallow the anchor.

    a great post ...of the times and situations after the war ....interesting to read ...more like this from the older members....R683532

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Time to swallow the anchor.

    in my case coming home dad was terminally ill 26 pound a month was not going to cut it loved every day at sea made a man out of me very quick but duty fell to mother first i had dad around for 2 more years a hard worker and the war took its toll on him working coak ovens he was a blacksmith ship repair harland and wolf? jp

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